Eyes on the Street: Pedestrian Islands on College Point Boulevard in Flushing

Clarence took these shots of new pedestrian islands going in on College Point Boulevard in Flushing. “I counted seven or eight between between 33rd and Maple Avenues,” he says.

College Point Boulevard, says Clarence, is “always dangerous to cross.” Two pedestrians have been killed and dozens of pedestrians and cyclists injured by motorists on this segment of the street since the mid 1990s, according to Transportation Alternatives’ CrashStat.

The 109th Precinct, which covers a large swath of Queens to the east and north of Flushing, issued 539 speeding tickets as of August — a significant increase over 2012, when precinct officers cited 262 drivers for speeding all year, but still less than two summonses per day.

Another pic from Clarence after the jump, plus an aerial view of College Point Boulevard before these improvements.

Glad to see this, but College Point Boulevard, and Flushing generally, is emblematic of the problems with the city’s real-estate driven approach to development in recent years that does not consider infrastructure needs. The city has allowed a massive increase in development in this area with no infrastructure investment. And it’s about to get worse with the auto-oriented Willets Point development. Densities in this area are going so high, and the infrastructure so inadequate and complicated by highways and Flushing Creek, that it really needs a mass transit circulator like a people mover system.

Matthias

I wound up on College Point Blvd on my bike one time. This rough concrete stroad is pretty terrifying.

Joe R.

College Point Blvd. is actually one of the tamer arterials. If you really want a terrifying experience, try Cross Bay Blvd. I had to take that en route to the Belt Parkway Greenway a few times. It’s practically a highway on some stretches. College Point Blvd. has heavy truck traffic, but generally congestion prevents vehicles from going much over the speed limit.

All that said, probably Kissena Blvd. is the best bike route to take to downtown Flushing if you’re coming from the East.